ESL Six - Classes 3 and 4, March 30th, 2011 -- Short Story by Meyers

Homework--Fill in your worksheet using information listed below (Baddest Dog Analysis Sheet); be prepared to review an find the evidence within the content of this story.  Also, in class, be prepared to illustrate your own personal neighborhood (later you will use symbolism, imagery, personification, figurative language in writing about your neighborhood).

Theme of Today's Lesson:  Build confidence in reading and telling, retelling stories

Theme of Short Story:  Discrimination Awareness

Title of Short Story:  "The Baddest Dog in Harlem"
Author:  Walter Dean Myers

Protagonist:   Narrator, "I"

Main Characters:  Willie, Pedro, the Cops, the dead kid, and Mary Brown

Supporting Characters:  Neighborhood people and the "dead dog"

(Find the evidence--note page, column, and line)
Setting:  Harlem neighborhood on 145th Street; summer time -- the guys are hanging outt, outside alking about boxing in front of Joe's Place (a restaruant).  Modern times--people are not rich in this neigborhood, since the author talks about how people "hang-out" a lot.  Author sets the tone of Harlem as one being always thought of "gangs," "guns," and violence.

(Find the evidence--note page, column, and line)
Conflict:  Someone reported "business" in the neighborhood and called the cops.  The neighborhood was quiet, then all of a sudden cops come "squealing around the corner," get out of their cop cars, and immediately have their guns in their hands--never once asking anyone questions if they saw and/or heard anything.  This is evidence of discrimination.

(Find the evidence--note page, column, and line)
Theme:  Biased thinking, discrimination, sterotyping, "racist" remarks

(Find the evidence--note page, column, and line)
Quote that best supports the ideas in theme

(Find the evidence--note page, column, and line)
Climax: 

(Find the evidence--note page, column, and line)
Symbolism:

(Find the evidence--note page, column, and line)
Figurative Language:

(Find the evidence--note page, column, and line)
Moral to the Story:


Next, think of your own neighborhood and create an image of what it is like to live in that neighborhood.  Think about the setting, people and behavior, and opportunities.  Draw this image and/or create a collage that best shows the "feeling" of what it like to live there.  Then, think of a symbol that might best describe your neighborhood, and use other literary elements and techniques in writing about your work. (Just as the "baddest dog" is used in this short story).